Lava Lands Visitor Center Paving Project

Lava Lands Visitor Center serves as the focal point for heavy visitation within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. The Lava Lands Visitor Center paving project focused on re-paving two asphalt parking lots and creating a new asphalt parking access roadway. Crews removed existing asphalt pavement and concrete wheelstops and conducted minor grading and compaction of aggregate base material to maintain existing grades. Key project enhancements included paving new asphalt, striping parking stalls, installing wheelstops, and replacing directional arrows and stop bars.

Project Benefits

• Improves Visitor Experience A high-volume of visitors travel to Lava Lands Visitor Center to experience exhibits on geological history of the area, trails throughout the lava flow, an educational bookstore, and an operational fire lookout atop Lava Butte. The existing asphalt for the visitor center parking lots and the onsite host parking area was in very poor and unsafe condition, including pavement cracks up to three inches wide. Paving the two parking lot areas and the access roadway greatly improves access for visitors by providing a long-lasting, smooth asphalt surface on which folks can safely park and walk.
• Economic Benefits (benefits to communities, who the contract is awarded to, job creation) Repaving and improving the parking areas at Lava Lands Visitor Center positively improves visitor experiences. Lava Lands Visitor Center is considered both a tourist destination within Central Oregon, as well as a beloved educational recreation venue visited by the local community and schools. Operations at Lava Lands Visitor Center are offered in conjunction with Discover Your Forest and Cascades East Transit, both of which provide jobs and foster economic benefits for the local community.
• Central Oregon, as well as a beloved educational recreation venue visited by the local community and schools. Operations at Lava Lands Visitor Center are offered in conjunction with Discover Your Forest and Cascades East Transit, both of which provide jobs and foster economic benefits for the local community.
• Other Benefits:
  • Promotes Management of America’s Forests (improves delivery of goods and services to communities, enhances customer service and boosts productivity of NFS land; improves resource conditions)
  • Improves Access: The parking lot repaving project is the first phase in a series of projects potentially slated for Lava Lands Visitor Center. In the future, we hope to install a new permanent toilet at the Sun-Lava Trailhead, increase accessibility from the parking lot to sidewalks by installing new curb ramps, and improve the parking lot exit driveway.
  • Ensures health and safety

Deferred Maintenance Eliminated: $596,100

Leveraging Partners

Discover Your Forest operates a bookstore and provides interpretive programming support at Lava Lands Visitor Center and the trails that stem from this facility. Cascades East Transit works in conjunction with Discover Your Forest to provide shuttle service for visitors to the top of Lava Butte Interpretive Site during peak season. Visitors utilizing services from both of these entities will receive an enhanced and improved experience.